This Is Our Life: Haida Material Heritage and Changing Museum Practice by Cara Krmpotich and Laura Peers (review)

Haida art has been collected by British museums for 225 years, since 1789. This book chronicles recent innovations in museum practices, indigenization of museology, and transformations in relations between Indigenous Peoples and museums. Cara Krmpotich and Laura Peers document how museums collaborated with the Haida to build yahgudang.gang, or respectful relationships.

The book title comes from Vernon Williams Jr., who said, “Some people call these objects, this is our life.” The authors change our view of “objects” to broader Haida ideas of ancestors, sacred objects, and living objects. Before the Haida visit in 2009, Haida began visiting British museums in the 1960s and 1970s. The great Haida artist Bill Reid visited the British Museum in 1968 and 1976. A ritual smudging occurred in 1998. The book explores the balance between museum policies and practices and the needs of the Haida. The book gives voice and substance to the broader international movement in recognizing Indigenous peoples’ governance, knowledge, and culture.

Each chapter provides a balance between the museum’s and the Haida’s perspectives. Chapter 1, “Paths Bringing Us Together,” brings us to the leading edge on museum “re-engagements” that focus on what museum objects mean now to contemporary Indigenous Peoples. Chapter 2, “Preparations for the Visit,” details the great lengths the Pitts Rivers Museum and the British Museum went to in preparing objects and museum staff for the Haida visit, including practising respectful communication. Chapter 3, “Moments of Encounter,” is moving, emotional, and exhilarating; Haida want to learn by touching, whereas museum practice calls for no touching. Gambling sticks came alive when Jaalen Edenshaw held the sticks as if they were playing lahal. That’s when Nika sang a gambling song, and the betting began. In the end, the gambling sticks were returned safely to the table. Chapter 4, “Reflecting on the Visit,” centres on how museum staff’s view of objects was transformed by their new appreciation of Haida material culture. The authors write, “Afterwards we cried. Our treasures were brought to life that day, for the first time in over one hundred years, probably more.” Museum staff learned that Haida “objects” are connected to the land, history, identities, alliances, and stories of the Haida. In chapter 5, “Maintaining Relationships into the Future,” they describe how being respectful transformed their relationship with the Haida into a productive one. The final chapter, “Museums as They Are, and Museums as They Might Be,” describes museum encounters with Indigenous Peoples as contact zones and a third space. The authors write, “Haida are no longer ‘Other’: they are Qwaai and Jaalen and Melinda and Nika and everyone else we met in a context of reciprocity, followed by trust, rather than uncertainty.” The lesson learned is that trust and respect can lead to meaningful relationships, knowledge, and transformation.

The book touches lightly on the darker side of early museum acquisitions and practices. As you might imagine, this history is pitted with controversy and mystery. The collection of Haida art began during the intense oppression of the Haida and their culture. For example, hundreds of totem poles are evident in old photos in the Haida villages of Old Massett and Skidegate. But the poles were cut down and burned, and a few found their way into museums and private collections.

This Is Our Life is an excellent book on new museum practices on building relations, indigenizing knowledge, and care for a living culture. The authors look through three lenses. The first lens is rooted in handling of objects: museum staff feel objects should be handled only by museum staff, whereas Haida feel objects should be stroked, held, danced with, worn, or performed. The second lens focuses on emotion, to “understand, in another way, what material things mean to people and why.” Finally, the third focus is on repatriation, to “understand relationships – between Haidas today and their ancestors, and between museum staff and Haidas...